The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-12-22

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gallon and half of tea. coffee and water.
and native man duplicated this bill Of fare
TO show that he could eat = much as the
boy. Our Christmas contract was, therefore
not small one. For ourselves ~ delvetl
freely into the canned stuff We had; and taken
altogether, for We also had everything the
market afforded, We could have spent much
less cheerful Christmas in climates that have
the reputation Of being better. In the lone
some frontier posts on the Western plains
have often spent less agreeable holiday.
Nor were our boreal beasts of burden, the
dogs, to 40 without their share Of the good
cheer, and l told the Eskimo that would
feed mine, some thirty in number, and It
would look well II they would do the same
for theirs, which they agreed to do. Mine
got an extra feast that day, while they timed
theirs 30 that Christmas would fall - o regu
lar feeding time; for IL should be remeui
bered that the Eskimo dogs here are only
fed every other day at the most, and much
oftener only every third day. Their best
food consists of strips of walrus hide an inch
thick, an inch wide, and from eight to ten
inches long-about the size Of . hickory
hatchet handle and fully as tough. After
the dog has swallowed half dozen Of these 1t
is no wonder that he can 60 for two or three
days without anything more to eat: and IL
really looks a. II such Christmas present
ought to last until the next ,,hristmas, or the
Fourth Of July, at least. II is the favorite
food for sledge journeys, having the greatest
amount Of concentration in 1t of any known
food, thus lasting longer; while eit has another
conspicuous advantage that by taking 1t
along in large slabs the dogs teeth can make
no impression on it, if they steal It (they
swallow It whole when cut in strips), and
thus it is safe from their raids on the store
tgloo (snow house, in the night time. (Once
on sledge,journey had the dogs keep us
awake by scratching to get at the edibles in
the store house, Wien the irate dog-driver
arose, took slab out of the place, and with
some remarks that sounded like mild polar
profanity, threw II among the dogs, that
closed In on 1t with rush. They might AZ
we'll have charged sheet Of boiler.platc
iron, and the dog-driver chuckled O. he re-
tired again and curled up under thesreindeer
robes and listened to the growing dogs try.
ing to tear the tough hide to pieces. Next
morning It was gone, and thought the dogs
had miraculously managed to devour it, un.
til TOolooah showed me trail where wolf
had dragged 1t away, and ne had another
good laugh, thinking how the captor would
get breakfast out of it. The wolf probably
starved to death over it,
Sure enough, Christmas came, and with IL
the Eskimo. We distributed slight presents
among them, the men getting powder, caps
and balls, the women, gloves, needles, thin.
bles, and cheap jewelry, which the children
also got. The presents were surprise to
them. and true to their generous nature the
next day they got up q sort of Eskimo Christ.
mas and deluged us with presents of rein.
deer and musk-ox hams, walrus and seal
fippers, reindeer clothing, walrus tusks and
all the boreal brica-brac that would take a
column to enumerate. The feast was soon
stewing and the air 80 hot from the steam
and many breaths that the roof threatened
to fall in, but as roofing material was cheaper
than dinners we propped it up. cut ventilat.
Ing holes, and went ahead.
Long and lovingly they fingered over this
part Of the white mans Christmas, and
when they were through the only regret
they expressed was as to their inability to get
down on their hands and knees comfortably
in order to crawl out the little snow-house
door, and they bade rs Goodbye affection.
ately, giving lavish expressions Of enjoy
ment, and with an earnest inquiry as to
when Christmas would come again they dis
appeared. FREDHRICK SCHwATKA.